Upscale Pinkberry reopens at new BGSU location

Frozen yogurt chain Pinkberry held a grand re-opening on July 21 at a new Bowling Green State University location with what officials hope offers better visibility, higher traffic and increased ease-of-access.

The trendy franchise is a bit of a coup for BGSU, as it remains the only in Ohio, and was just the second-ever at a university when it originally opened at its former, more secluded campus spot in 2011.

“This is about being unique in the state of Ohio and being No. 1,” said BGSU President Mary Ellen Mazey. “We want to be known for what BGSU has and no one else has.”

The grand re-opening of Bowling Green’s Pinkberry was held July 21. Toledo Free Press photo by Tom Konecny.

Pinkberry already has 225 stores after growing at Twitter-like speed since launching its first location in West Hollywood, California, in January 2005.

Although Angelenos had already been driving across town and standing in line for up to 30 minutes to enjoy its sweet treats, the original site owes a heap of gratitude to actress Lindsay Lohan. It was during its first year of opening when the famous celebrity stopped by, drawing hordes of paparazzi to photograph her holding a Pinkberry cup topped with Fruity Pebbles cereal.

The ensuing attention surged Pinkberry to stardom. That instant “it” factor and its largely fat-free healthful indulgence quickly led one Hollywood star after another to Pinkberry, which has enjoyed a cult and groupie-like following nearly from the start.

The grand re-opening of Bowling Green’s Pinkberry was held July 21. Toledo Free Press photo by Tom Konecny.

“We do have a huge celebrity following,” said Daniel Guerrero, Pinkberry area manager. “Most recently, Cee Lo Green said it was his ‘favorite obsession.’”

Groupies also helped the brand grow before the days of Facebook and Instagram, where fans used Internet forums to share their love of Pinkberry and discuss items only available to those “in the know,” such as special flavors and toppings not necessarily made public.

A combination of its Hollywood roots, velvet rope-like long wait, chic furniture and overall “swirly goodness” – as Pinkberry calls it – has made fro-yo a thing again. The market enjoyed a surge in the 1980s, and there appears to be a renaissance with consumers looking for more healthy options nowadays, according to Guerrero.

Pinkberry offers six frozen yogurt flavors, 20 dry toppings and fresh fruit. Toppings are unlimited – at least, that is, as many as you can fit in the bowl.

Pinkberry and its BGSU operators believe the new location is a better fit, which already has a Dunkin’ Donuts nearby, as well as free parking for those in the community.

“Sometimes people feel like you can’t come to campus,” said Robin Bruning, operations manager. “Dunkin’ Donuts kind of paved the way for us. We’re talking about doing some dual marketing together.”

The only other Pinkberry in the area is in Ann Arbor, so Bruning hopes to draw consumers who need to satisfy their Pinkberry craving.

“I do expect some visitors,” Bruning said.

Pinkberry is open seven days a week, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. When the university academic year starts Aug. 25, hours will expand to 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Friday and noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Why Cee Lo Green’s performance of ‘Imagine’ stirred outrage

It isn’t an unforgivable crime to alter someone else’s work. Adaptations and alterations occur all the time in pop culture — it’s part of the creative process. When someone decides to tweak an earlier piece in an interesting way, that often freshens up the existing work and makes it something new again.

“Imagine all the people living for today.”

But you have to be careful. When you’re adapting a work that is universally beloved —one that speaks to people beyond being a simple piece of art — the liberty to make changes comes fraught with perils. Above all, it’s important that the idea of the original work, the themes that make it what it is, are left intact.

“Imagine there’s no countries.

It isn’t hard to do.

Nothing to kill or die for.

And no religion, too.”

That’s what has made some people so angry about Cee Lo Green’s performance of John Lennon’s immortal “Imagine” on New Year’s Eve. It’s not just that he changed a few words. It’s that he altered the message of the work, seemingly without really comprehending what his changes meant. And, in an apparent effort to not cause offense, he ended up causing the most offense of all.

“Imagine all the people living life in peace.”

Green is a gifted performer. I have enjoyed his bawdy yet charming pop stylings for a while now, and not just because he gives fat guys like me hope that we could one day be as cool as he is. What I have especially enjoyed is his willingness to not take himself too seriously. Anyone who could record something as rollicking and fun as “F*** You” definitely has a good sense of humor.

“You, you may say I’m a dreamer,

but I’m not the only one.

I hope some day you’ll join us,

And the world will be as one.”

Green’s rendition of the song in Times Square came only a few minutes before midnight. He performed almost all of the lyrics faithfully and beautifully. Then he got to the line about “and no religion, too.” But that’s not what he sang. His version went, “and all religion’s true.”

Lennon fans — a group that makes up about half of the world’s population, I’d guess —were outraged. They took to Twitter and lashed out at Green for the alteration, a response that seemed to genuinely surprise him. “Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyric guys! I was trying to say a world were u could believe what u wanted that’s all,” he tweeted.

“Imagine no possessions.

I wonder if you can.

No need for greed or hunger.

A brotherhood of man.”

This is not the first time that a performance of “Imagine” has seen alteration. I’ve heard of versions where the line has been changed to “and one religion, too,” which is a far more perverse mutation of the song’s meaning. Green’s effort to make it more inclusive is certainly a far lesser offense than that.

But still, it cannot be denied that Green’s change completely reverses the meaning of the lyric, if not the whole song. The piece is designed to inspire unity by suggesting a world where all the things that divide us — countries, affiliations, possessions and more — simply don’t exist. By injecting religion back into the song, Green’s interpretation sidestepped its intention.

“Imagine all the people sharing all the world.”

It also made it somewhat nonsensical. Why did Green change the “no religion” line when, just a few seconds before, he felt comfortable singing “Imagine”’s opening lines, where there’s no heaven or hell? This falls in line with the song’s nonreligious themes, but those stayed intact.

I believe I understand Green’s reasons for changing the piece. He was trying to avoid causing controversy by changing the lyric, giving it what he felt was a more “universal” theme.

But there was the flaw — “Imagine” is already universal. I know many people, religious and otherwise, who adore the song for what it is: an appeal for understanding and brotherhood. To them, it’s not anti-religion. It’s pro-humanity. And so many believe in that message that when Green made his alteration, they felt he was insulting not only the song, but what it stood for.

Block me

Bill Day, a former Blade editor, was a consultant to the University of Toledo Collegian during my early days there. Among the hundreds of lessons he (and Blade alumnus Ed Whipple and the late Bill Rosenberg) imparted was wisdom about an “obscene” word I had used in a column.

I had declared that something or someone “sucked,” and was taken aback by Day’s adverse reaction to the word, which was used fairly commonly even back in the early 1990s. Day said the word is “crass,” which it is, and professed surprise that it had entered mainstream vernacular. It is a striking and ugly word, but in pop culture terms was divorced from its explicit origin long before I used it.

Day’s reaction has since been a measuring stick for the words I utilize in print. With a few purposeful exceptions, this is a no-fly zone for explicit language. But as the ’90s melted into the 2000s and now into the second decade of the new century, obscenity barriers are falling faster than Middle East governments.

The granddaddy of all obscene words recently enjoyed a banner week. Rather than be coy by employing asterisks or cartoony character symbols to display Taboo Word No. 1, let’s use another word that starts with a soft consonant sound, glides over a breathy vowel and closes with a hard click: “block.” So when I need to employ an f-bomb in this discussion, I’ll use “block” instead.

The king of curse words started the month of March by being featured in the titles of not just one, but two official Billboard magazine Top 10 songs. Peaking at No. 2 was Cee Lo Green’s “Block You,” which was a recent nominee in the Grammy Song of the Year category. The song uses the word “block” roughly 16 times: “I see you driving ‘round town/With the girl I love and I’m like, block you!/I guess the change in my pocket/Wasn’t enough/I’m like, block you!/And block her too!”

How did Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen ever make it through their Top 10 and Grammy-winning careers without relying on a song that focused on “block you” as its main hook?

Just a few notches down, at No. 4, Pink scored with her song “Blockin’ Perfect.” Pink only uses the word “block” at least seven times: “Pretty pretty please, don’t you ever ever feel/Like you’re less than blockin’ perfect/Pretty pretty please, if you ever ever feel like you’re nothing /You’re blockin’ perfect to me!”

Are you paying attention, Hallmark?

Cee Lo and Pink are not the first artists to use “block” in a song. The Who took “Who Are You” to No. 14 in 1978, with its Roger Daltrey-wailed “Who the block are you?” Prince dropped “block” in so many songs, he had to send the longshoremen royalty checks. Alanis Morissette famously asked, “Are you thinking of me when you block her?” in “You Oughta Know” and Radiohead professed the object of singer Thom Yorke’s affection was “so blockin’ special” in “Creep.” But radio stations usually cut the word, and it certainly wasn’t used in song titles like Cee Lo and Pink used it.

A one-hit wonder named Eamon made waves in 2004 with “Block It (I Don’t Want You Back),” which reached No. 1 in several countries with an official Guinness World Record for 33 repetitions of “block.” It made the Billboard Top 20 in the United States, and inspired an answer record by the female singer Frankee, “Block You Right Back.”

It’s one thing when novelty songs like Eamon’s make the charts or when the MC 5 scream “Kick out the jams, motherblockers” or the Dead Kennedys declare they are “too drunk to block;” that’s intentional provocation, not the casual, lazy usage Cee-Lo and Pink employ. The difference is significant in terms of what mainstream America is willing to accept.

And yes, rap musicians use the word “block” like most people use the word “the.” Eminem and Three 6 Mafia both won Oscars for songs that use the word “block.”

Speaking of Oscar, Best Supporting Actress winner Melissa Leo made news when she dropped the word “block” during what is supposed to be one of entertainment’s classiest and stuffiest venues.

In a bizarre reversal of character, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, who screamed in “Closer” that he wanted to “block you like an animal,” won an Oscar for his score for “The Social Network” and took the stage as cultured and refined as anyone in the theater. I watched his acceptance speech and kept hoping he would revert to form and tell the Academy he wanted to block it like an animal, but no such luck.

It’s worth noting that Best Picture winner “The King’s Speech” will reportedly be released with a PG-13 rating instead of its original R if it drops two “blocks” from its soundtrack. So there are still some final frontiers for the taboo word.

I am certainly guilty of over-employing the word “block” in its many variations; that’s partially because I retain my South End street roots and partially because newsrooms breed foul language like Charlie Sheen’s sheets breed whatever nasty human bouillabaisse of bacteria lurks there.

But yelling “block!” at a crashed computer isn’t the same as placing a song in the country’s top 10 pop charts. Or is it? In a society that allows such charming idioms as “MILF” in its daily conversation, does every private use of the word further cultivate its public use? Do we lower all standards when we lower ours?

If so, we are royally blocked.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Call him at (419) 241-1700 or e-mail him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.